Sonic Underground

Near the start of the new millennium, sega launched a new round of heavy advertising for its main franchises, one of which was sonic the hedgehog. To enhance the hype, they commissioned a new cartoon from DIC entertainment, the same company that did the previous 2 Sonic cartoons. The result was SONIC UNDERGROUND, a curious little series with many questionable Creative decisions.

For a start, they got the head writer of the more serious SONIC THE HEDGEHOG cartoon on board for plotting SONIC UNDERGROUND. Instead of continuing that cult classic, which many fans were clamouring for, they incorporated broad strokes events and loose elements of that story into a whole new story unrelated to past animated series or games. In this new continuity, Sonic and his siblings Sonia and Manic are the heirs to the throne but the evil Doctor Robotnik launches a coup and took over the royal capital of mobotropolis. Instead of establishing a pollution spewing all powerful empire of machine Troops and servants created from roboticizing civilians, Robotnik in this show is content to let the rich and powerful civilians remain untouched so long as they do as he says and do not get in his way. Only the lower castes were roboticised. As such there are populated towns and much more in the way of talking critter side characters contributing to the plots of episodes.

In terms of tone, it is no where near the comedic camp of ADVENTURES OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG but it is also much lighter than the post apocalyptic dystopia of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. The stakes are not as dire, the villains are still evil but not as monstrous, and the world is "friendlier" with the episodes consisting of the 3 Hedgehog siblings travelling the globe in search of allies, clues to locate their mother and to fulfill a prophesy to take back their kingdom.

The second and most divisive creative decision was....the songs. No this is not Sonic The Musical, though it might have been better if it was. In every episode, at least one of the sibling Hedgehogs will whip out their magical instrument (electric guitar for sonic, drum set for manic, and keyboard for Sonia) and start this late 90s MTV music video sequence full of cheap visual tricks like multiple split screens, fade ins, cross dissolves etc. Again, I have nothing against a good musical but the transition between the episode story and the sudden music video is so jarring. There are a few catchy songs but the majority are a cheesy dated mix of 90s pop and rock tunes which border on cringe. A pity since they are generally well sung and with voices that sound much better than the characters' speaking voices. Namely because Sonic, Sonia and Manic are voiced by Jaleel White, Jaleel White doing falsetto, and Jaleel White doing surfer dude.

Having the same guy doing all 3 main voices, including a female character's voice, really does not work especially when at times the voices seem to slip into each other like Manic would suddenly talk like Sonic or Sonic himself would have that higher Sonia pitch. The other characters' voice actors do a decent job with the cheesy material they are given, and fan favourites like Knuckles do appear later on. However some of the casting choices just do not seem to fit. Like Doctor Robotnik is played by Garry Chalk, sounding exactly like his Optimus Primal role from BEAST WARS. For Knuckles he is played by Brian Drummond and one would expect a gruff warrior type voice similar to his Zechs Merquise role from GUNDAM WING but he sounds like a whiny teenage geek.

The animation on SONIC UNDERGROUND is equally hit or miss. Other traditional animated contemporaries in 1999 include series like Redwall, Big Guy and Rusty, and Batman Beyond in the west, along with Digimon, Monster Rancher, and Zoids in the east. No matter how you compared, SONIC UNDERGROUND's animation does not hold up. While the character models are much more consistent and there are some exceedingly well animated sequences, these are far in between. There are a fair share of animation mistakes, mostly in compositing, and A lot of the animation comes across as lazy. For example, in past SONIC cartoons when sonic ran they would animate his full body motions of running with at most his feet being a blur. In SONIC UNDERGROUND the typical portrayal of Super speed is to reduce Sonic to a glowing blue smear streaking across the screen. There is also reused and looped animation which pop up most frequently in the previously mentioned music video segments.

The series itself ended with no resolution to any of the ongoing plot lines. Though there is a Small segment of fans who do like the unorthodox approach, it never got the level of fan following that SONIC THE HEDGEHOG did Nor did it achieve the memetic status of ADVENTURES. Between the indecisive tone, juvenile writing that did not match the epic fantasy setup, and the comparatively mediocre visuals I would consider SONIC UNDERGROUND less of a classic and more a mere curiosity.

I loved Sonic Underground when i was a kid and Still do to this day. I unfortunately will probably never see this show in a box set of DVD's here in Canada. Oh well I still run around trying to be Sonic or Manic, or Sonia whichever suites my fancy at the time. ^_^ Oh and sometimes I play Knux too! I watch a lot of old cartoons but Sonic Underground has to be one of my fav top tens. Did anyone know the singing voice for Sonic in Sonic Underground now plays Martin Mystery?! I didn't till my brother pointed it out to me. :) But I know Sonic will be around for years to come and I will be there for every new show, comic, game, or toy. And when Sonic Underground does come out on DVD here in Canada, I'm gonna be one of the first there to get it!

This is one show I recommend. I have been a fan of this show for almost a year now, and always loved it. This show IS related to a previously released series back in 1993, but because it lacks certain characters from the old series, it was never given a chance. I personally am a fan of Sonic Underground, so I recommend it!

I never heard of this cartoon until 2002. Unlike the syndicated Adventures of Sonic and the cult favorite SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic Underground is at a whole different level. Instead of Sonic being a standard hero, he's a prince accompanied by 2 of his Siblings, who he hasn't seen since the day they were infants. One is Manic(a green male hedgehog who was raised as a thief) and the other is Sonia(a free roaming female hedgehog). Their mother(The Queen) had to separated them because of Robotnik taking over Mobius(which is similar to what he did in the previous series).

So the Queen left each of her kids a music medallion which has the power of sound waves and music. When all 3 of the Hedgehog siblings combine them, they become one unbeatable rock and roll team. That can wipe out Robonik's forces of robots.

Throughout the series, the hedgehog trio travels around Mobius in their own van, and try to search for their own mother. As mentioned that when they're reunited again, they'll be able to overthrown Robotnik for good.

Despite it being the weakest of the DiC Entertainment Sonic cartoons. The series does have great animation, character designs, and interesting stories. The down side, it's a disappointment to most Sonic Fans. And it's no where close to being as excellent as the SatAM one.

Since it was made and adapted from Europe, the whole story, theme, and look does look very European. And pretty much something the British would come up with if they were given a task in creating their own Sonic the Hedgehog.

I only seen 9 out of 40 episodes for this series. A few of them are average, but there are some good episodes that are worth watching. Giving Sonic Underground credit in enjoyment.

Overrall not highly recommended for those who liked SatAM Sonic, as very few elements from that series exist in this one. And song haters will avoid it at all costs. To be on the safe side, borrow it or download it to see for your own opinion on it.

This show came out in fan's favor of wanting a new Sonic series; however, they became mortified to found out there would be no reference to the original Freedom Fighters many of us had grown to love. Some complained that the Saturday morning Sonic strayed from the games, but this series strays from everything Sonic. The only two characters we know are Sonic and Robotnik; Tails and the others have been replace by Sonic's stereotypical sister Sonia and thieving brother Manic. Snively and Naugus have been replaced by two henchmen known as Sleet the tricky wolf, and Dingo the stupid... well, dingo.

In the 1993 - 95 series, a great message was sent to younger viewers as Bunnie struggled to use her handicap to the best of her abilities. In Sonic Underground, many wrong messages are sent as Sonia is the picture of stereotypical girls. She's always worried about her hair and looks; younger girls who watch this will think they need to be like this. Manic is constantly lock picking and stealing from others, which is definitely not something good for children to see, especially since it's most often used to their advantage. These shows shouldn't be used as role models anyway, but certainly there were better messages sent out in SatAM.

Another problem is though the show is aimed for younger viewers, many times the plot would be hard to follow for them. In Mobodoon, the writes assumed all viewers have a background of the musical Brigadoon. When Manic explains about Mobodoon appearing once in a great while, he speaks too fast to be understood, so it may be confusing for some. Another instance was when Manic was trying to sneak into Robotnik headquarters and the 'camera' shows a blinking light behind him, and the next time we see him, he's being thrown in a cell by SWaTBots. The blinking light was obviously a camera of some kind, but younger children won't comprehend that. Along this line, the show contains many flashing bright light sequences that can't be good for the eyes. In a few episodes, I had to turn my head or close my eyes to stop my eyes from hurting. People with epilepsy are cautioned.

Finally, the characters from Sega have completely gone out of character. Knuckles, who in Sonic adventure claims 'he doesn't need a possy' and 'independence is his first step' has Sonia as his girlfriend. They even have a kissing scene together! Sonic, who used to be cool and 'never gives up the fight', has become week and deathly afraid of water. The love he has for his brother and sister are peanuts to the love he had for Sally in the SatAM series.

One good thing is the songs in the episodes are usually done quite well, but the singing voices don't always sound like the characters. Singing once in a while is good, but in every episode, it gets old fast. The songs will sometimes come at bad time during something exciting, which will seem less exciting then. Other times, the songs will be the plot filler which is really annoying.

Poor writing, the lack of well-known and loved characters and confusion are what make this series a shame to carry the name of Sonic the Hedgehog.